This post is all about making and maintaining your sourdough starter.
In the homesteading community there is nothing more satisfying to me than making my own sourdough starter, maintaining it, and eventually making my very own sourdough bread. The process of baking your own sourdough bread feels like going back to our ancestral roots. Feels like going back to the old fashioned way of life that so many people long for these days.
In this post I am going to teach you how to do just that: make your own sourdough starter and how to maintain your sourdough starter as well.
I remember when I made my first sourdough starter, I had never done anything like that before and I didn’t even know where to start. It was just when I was just getting into the homesteading world. I looked it up, and it confused me more, it seemed like everyone had their own versions. So, I want to explain to you how to make a sourdough starter keeping it simple. This is the tried and true way to make and maintain your sourdough starter, without any random ingredients, yeast, or specific flour.
You will need:
- Flour (only specification: has to be a grain flour, i.e. whole wheat, all purpose flour)
- Water
- Measuring cup (1/2 cup)
- Large Jar
- Bowl (if you want to make your starter in a bowl and transfer to the jar to make sure the jars sides stay clear)
- Cheese cloth, coffee filter, or cloth (small), & a rubber band , or jar lid of choice
Now, let’s make our sourdough starter:
Step 1: Measure out 1/2 cup of your flour choice to make your sourdough starter and pour this into your jar (if you want to make it in a bowl and transfer you can)
Step 2: Measure out 1/2 cup of water and pour this into your jar (or bowl). Now mix both ingredients together until thoroughly mixed.
Step 3: Cover with the lid of your choice, you will see optimal results if you use cheese cloth, or a coffee filter with a rubber band over to hold it on. This will give the starter a good amount of oxygen and it will thrive.
Maintaining your starter:
Step 1: Keep your starter in a warmer environment, NOT hot, just warm. This will optimize its growth at the beginning stages.
Step 2: Day 2-7 add the same amount of water (1/4 cup) and flour (1/2 cup) as you did the first day and mix well.
Step 3: At this point you stop adding to it everyday, as long as it’s turned into a starter. To continue the growth and health of my sourdough after the seventh day I add to it once a week or more if it looks like it needs it. Every time you use from it, add more the night before!
Step 4: Many people keep their starter in the fridge to control the growth after a month of its start. If it doesn’t look healthy, take it out of the fridge. I haven’t done this with my starter, it isn’t necessary. But if you don’t use from it often, keep your sourdough starter in the fridge.
& That’s it!
This is how simple making a sourdough is! After seven days you should see bubbles. It should be fluctuating in size throughout the day and night as temperatures change. It should smell like sourdough, NOT musty, or moldy. The starter shouldn’t be discolored, it should remain the same color. And if any of these things are happening throw out that sourdough starter and start over! It’s okay, it’s trial and error!
If you don’t see that many bubbles, but it doesn’t smell, don’t give up on it, keep adding flour and water for a few more days and see what it does! Make sure you add pretty exact measurements, this will help grow the sourdough starter. Lastly, you may see that your sourdough has separated into an oil and flour mixture. This is okay, just mix it together. This should go away within a few days. If not, when this happened to my sourdough starter I started adding a little bit more flour to even out the consistency. I had fed mine too much water, this helped.
These are some extra tips and things to look out for on your sourdough starter journey!
This was how to make a sourdough starter and how to maintain your sourdough starter!
